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About Me

Hussam has been a lifelong human rights activist who is passionate about promoting democratic societies, in the US and worldwide, in which all people, including immigrants, workers, minorities, and the poor enjoy freedom, justice, economic justice, respect, and equality. Mr. Ayloush frequently lectures on Islam, media relations, civil rights, hate crimes and international affairs. He has consistently appeared in local, national, and international media.
Full biography at:
http://hussamayloush.blogspot.com/2006/08/biography-of-hussam-ayloush.html

Wednesday, September 04, 2013

Letter to the Anti-War Movement from the Syrian American Community

Note: Various Syrian American organizations wrote this letter. I agree with the message and decided to share it too.

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But it is not too late for the rest of Syrian children

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Letter to the Anti-War Movement from the Syrian American
Community

Skepticism towards President
Obama’s decision to launch a limited military campaign against the Syrian
regime is understandable. Ten years after the Iraq war, Syrian Americans have consistently been an integral part of the
anti-war movement in the United States for the past few decades. Syrian
Americans took part in the strong opposition to the wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq and stood side by side with the anti-war movement against drone strikes on
Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Yemen. As citizens with origins in a region that has
terribly seen the results of war for the past century, Syrian Americans are no strangers to the dangers that war can bring
and have been some of the greatest voices against it. It is for this reason
that when the usage of force is supported it must be in a limited and proportional
way, to save civilian lives,
legally justified, and a last resort.

While based upon good intentions,
the anti-war movement today is in danger of standing with forces that support a
continuing of the conflict in Syria. The
conflict in Syria has reached a new level after the Syrian regime carried out
large-scale chemical weapons attacks on August 21, 2013, killing more than
1,400 people in the suburbs of Damascus. This large scale use of
chemical weapons is a serious and dangerous escalation, a bold sign of the
regime’s disregard of US warnings, and a clear indication of the regime’s
willingness and capacity to engage in future attacks on an even greater scale.
This attack came one full year after President Barack Obama on August 20th,
2012 said that the usage of chemical weapons on a large scale would be a red
line which would require intervention in the Syrian conflict.

War is always a last resort and any
type of military action should be proportional and legally justified. The
Syrian crisis has gone on for over two and a half years anddiplomatic
attempts to resolve the conflict have been exhausted and consistently failed as
thousands of people are killed by escalating violence:

·The Arab League sent in
monitors in December 2011 under General Ahmad al-Dabi to deter the Syrian
government from shooting at peaceful protestors. This monitoring mission
failed, the Syrian regime never accepted the allowing of a full monitoring team
into the country, and monitors were not able to prevent massacres in front of
their very eyes. The monitoring mission eventually failed and went home on
January 28th 2012.

·The United Nations appointed Special Envoy to
Syria Kofi Annan in February 2012 who tried to enforce a ceasefire and send a
United Nations monitoring mission to the country, which was approved on April
21st 2012. The ceasefire immediately broke down on May 25th
2012 when government forces massacred Syrian civilians in Houla, Syria killing
108 people including 34 women and 49 children. The monitors were not able to
stop further massacres in front of their very eyes and left the country on
August 18th 2012.

·After the failure of both
the Arab League and United Nations plans, attempts were made to make a
diplomatic deal with Russia to oust Assad through a political solution. On June
30th 2012, the United States and Russia agreed upon a “Geneva
Accord” which would solve the Syrian crisis through a peace deal between both
the rebels and the government. In September 2012, Egyptian President Mohammed
Morsi, visited Iran attempting to make a “Quartet” of countries including
Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey to provide a diplomatic solution for the
Syrian conflict which had completely failed. Again in the summer of 2013, the
United States attempted to revive the idea of talks with Russia towards pushing
both sides to a political solution announcing a Geneva II peace conference
between the government and the rebels which never got off the ground. Only last
month in August 2013, Saudi intelligence chief Bandar bin Sultan offered
Russia’s President Vladamir Putin a $17 billion dollar arms deal and preferred
energy contracts in return for ceasing support for the Assad regime and was
rejected.

Unlike past conflicts, such as the
war in Iraq, the Syria intervention is not
a unilateral American adventure but is being actively pushed by foreign
countries including Muslim countries.
The United Kingdom, France, and Turkey have called upon the international
community to act, while the Arab League on September 1st issued a
statement calling on international intervention to punish the Assad regime for
its chemical weapons attacks against civilians. These countries have called for even further action than is being
considered. The Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic
Conference, a conference of the 57 Islamic states in the world, Ekmeleddin
Ihsanoglu, has called for a no-fly-zone to be instituted in Syria. The response
will be undergone through legal channels. President Obama is asking the
Congress of the United States to authorize the use of force, and the evidence
has been in public view and will be debated for weeks. We are not rushing into war.

Unlike Iraq, the Syrian people have
pushed for intervention as well.The
sight of thousands of Syrians protesting in the streets on hundreds of YouTube
videos throughout the past two and a half years should disabuse any of the
notion that this is not something that the Syrian people want. As early as
September 9th 2011, the Syrian people held a nationwide Friday
protest called “The Friday of International Protection,” on October 28th
2011 they held “Friday of the No-Fly-Zone,” and have called for international
protection of civilians since the beginning of the conflict.

Finally, the response is proportional. The options for
consideration to respond to the Syrian regime’s usage of chemical weapons
include cruise missile strikes that will not involve boots on the ground. As
Secretary of State John Kerry noted on August 30th, the response
will not look like Iraq and Afghanistan nor will it even look like Libya.

Although you may still remain
skeptical for acting, non-acting only needlessly costs more civilian lives.
Only yesterday in Syria, September 1st, the Syrian regime launched
43 airstrikes on the country killing dozens of civilians. As Human Rights
Watch, Amnesty International, the International Red Cross, and other
non-government organizations have documented the usage of air power by the
Syrian regime against its civilian population is a war crime. Syria is already being bombed but by its
own government. The usage of chemical weapons by the regime to kill
over 1400 civilians is a significant escalation and truly a red line that goes
against basic international norms. By not acting, the Assad regime and other
dictatorships around the world will only be emboldened to use these weapons in
large amounts against their civilian populations when their regimes are
challenged.